Very early morning for Your Favorite Enemies’ camera crew! Indeed, Kim, Kosho, YB and I left at 4:30am, direction Cronulla beach! Our mission? Scouting the beach at sunrise to see if it would be fit for a filming location! Because yes, the filming we started a few days ago is still ongoing! Our result? We fell in love with the place! Witnessing a sunrise, a new day that’s only starting, is always a unique experience. But to see it from the other side of the world, rising above the ocean, is enough to leave everyone speechless. As you witness the colors of a new dawn upon yourself, you truly feel like everything is possible!

Cronulla beach is a wonderful place. The waves were strong this morning, and a lot of surfers decided it was perfect timing to catch a few waves! 7:30, after the sun finished rising, we decided to head back home, where we found, to our biggest surprise, all of the bearded freaks we had left behind fully awake! Needless to say, it’s been an usual very early morning for everyone!

On the menu? Individual practice for Sef and Jeff! Alex had another written interview for the UK to answer!

Ben, on his side, did for us a private show! “It’s my first time doing an outside show for people who are inside!” – that improvised show has been very meaningful for Ben…! Soon realizing he needed more to catch our attention, he decided to do a collaboration with internationally renowned artist Kosho. The new duo, with Kosho on vocals and Ben on bass and back vocals, embarked on their international one date tour in Sydney, Australia. For a very long 1 song set, the eclectic duo sang their love for Ben, to Ben’s special request. They sang soulful things such as “べノア、愛してる”, song that transformed into a “chanson à repondre” with lyrics like “牛乳ください、食べたいですか?、すいません、ごめんなさい”. Translation? Milk please, do you want to eat, excuse me, I’m sorry”. I am telling you, they’re gonna go far, as far as Japan and Drummondville… 😉 the song ended on a very fast paced rhythm, with Kosho singing solo all of what you think of when you think of Japan: Shibuya, Yamaha, Toyota, Mitsubishi.

Very inspired by what we just heard, we decided to listen to some newly released songs from a few bands. But to be honest with you, I can’t remember what were the songs, nor the band, nor how many we listened to, as they all sounded the same. The very same generic type of music. Followed a very intense and heated discussion about the state of music today, and what it truly is all about, its authenticity, its honesty, its truth. I can already feel that tonight’s show will be an incredible one… This passion for real and authentic will definitely be invested in their set tonight!

And passionate sure is one word that can be used to describe tonight’s live performance!! 1 hour of pure madness, of exhilarated sounds and noises!

Not only was the show unreal, meeting with friends and family we had talked to on Internet for over 6 years and met for the first time was as well! After so long, finally reunited! And even if we met for the first time, it felt just like it truly was: we have known each other for a lifetime already! And it was like this not only with the band members, but between the fans as well. There was a very special communion going on, as if we had all known everyone for years and years already. Moments like these are priceless. They truly make you realize just how much of an incredible family the YFE Family is! We ended the night by a toast with a taste of Australia from our friend Rie!

Thanks to all of you… it’s truly been an amazing night!!!

6:00am, leaving time! Oh well, after a few loading incidents and a few pictures. We left at 6:20! Sydney, here we come! 

No matter how early in the morning it was, you could feel the effervescence in the car! Sad to leave Brisbane, a city we love with people who forever marked our lives, we were nonetheless looking forward to share defining moments with some other family members in Sydney! The first 2 hours have been spent in an ecstatic mood, everybody happy not to sit beside Sef! Except for Kosho, who was sitting beside Sef 😉 Have you ever heard about the SBSL? That’s short for the “Sit By Sef Lottery”.

We then shared breakfast, a fruit bread for some, grapes for Alex, and something pretty alternative for Sef! Alex also found a cup big enough for his morning dose of coffee!

As excited as we were to get on the road, we all fell asleep soon after we finished eating! Jeff was in a particularly deep sleep, but Sef decided to wake him up in a very blessed way! Yes, even Sef can be nice at times… Almost! 

Oh, and Kosho won-lost the SBSL (Sit By Sef Lottery)! Poor him! After the ride, he told us that, besides the fact that most of what Sef said didn’t make any sense, what really freaked him out were the stories of crocodiles migrating from Florida to Australia every winter, of kangaroos that used to be bad dogs before Gandalf saved them with a spell of nice, and the fact that he kept asking if the autobots and the decepticons were still secretly living in Japan… Oh, and also that he kept eating vegemite throughout the trip. 6 pots of vegemite in total and approximately 20 chocolate bars. Kosho said his karma has probably been messed up for the rest of whatever how many lives he may live… lol!

Today was dedicated to rehearsal! We left the house around 2, and did a short stop by the grocery store. Well, it was supposed to be a short stop. But it turned out being a lot longer than only a few minutes! The guys decided it was time for some communion. When we are back home, the communion is made with cookies. But here in Australia, it was an apple tea cake. In the car, no utensils, everybody shared a piece of the cake. Yes, you can imagine the mess it created. Not only in the car, but also in the guys’ beards and hair… 😉

Then Jeff followed with a communion of his own, the “Fat-Man-inion”, that consisted of sausage rolls. Their characteristic? Heavy! It’s on these words that the special communion was consumed:
“May we be those who like to share beyond measure, because infinite is not a limit”.

Alex closed this communion on a very special note, soulfully singing 
“C’est une belle histoire qu’est la nôtre, une histoire d’amour comme il ne s’en fait plus.”
Kitsch, I agree, but true nonetheless! 

We finally made it to the rehearsing studio after this very interesting ride! A place that was very small, but just large enough for the band and all the equipment to fit in! We rehearsed from 3 to 8… 5 hours non-stop of songs one after the other. And the band members are just as intense when they rehearse as when they’re on stage! For them, it’s not about the place where you play, but about the music itself and the moments it creates! 

We hung out our Giants flag in the rehearsal studio! Jeff was wearing his Tim Lincecum tshirt as he was the pitcher in today’s game, Moose was also wearing a Giants tshirt, on which we however found a very particular mistake. Yes, a mistake on a tshirt. Shit happens! 

The rehearsal ended much later than we imagined… We did a quick stop at the Wheel of Brisbane where we grabbed a bite as well. Perfect way to end our last day in Brisbane, as we are leaving at 6am tomorrow morning!

New morning, new day, new adventure. There is no gig tonight, but it promises to be an exciting day, as we are going to Gold Coast again, this time for a video shooting! When we told you there was a lot of other ongoing projects, this is what we talked about! 😉

After Jeff had been thrown in the pool for the 3rd morning in a row,
we started the day sharing breakfast the 11 of us together, discussing about the great time we’ve had last night at the Miami Shark Bar, and of course, talking about baseball! It can’t be any other way, the Giants are facing the Dodgers after all! 

We did a short stop at Starbucks, that same one we went to as we reached Queensland! Just in time to catch the second half of the 9th inning of the game between the Giants and the Dodgers! 4-2 Giants, Romo on mound, bases loaded, 2 out… And 3 out! Suddenly no one’s sitting anymore, we all have our fists up in the air and we’re all screaming in celebration for our team’s victory! 

We then went to Currumbin Beach, where we spent the whole afternoon and evening in order to film for a very special project. I am unable to say more at the moment, but I can leave you with these few pictures of the filming location! The beach, the ocean, the sunset… It couldn’t get any better! 

Today almost felt like a day off. Almost. By that, I mean that we didn’t have thousands of interviews today! Nonetheless, it’s been another early morning for most of us, getting ready for the show in Gold Coast, changing guitar strings, cleaning up all the equipment. The only one who had a late morning was Jeff… And it was a morning in grand style for him, from the couch to the pool! 

Right after this, we’ve had a Skype with the people back home, telling them about what’s going on here, sharing stories, and of course, getting news about the 4 little wombats we have at home! 

We then hit the road direction Miami Shark Bar, in Gold Coast. We did a short stop at McDonald’s after a friend’s suggestion that we should have the Oz burger. Which, to our biggest disappointment, had already been taken off the menu! We might have had no burgers, but I know 2 people who had a lot of fun! 

The Shark Bar is located very close to the same beach we went to on our 14 hour drive! A great and very meaningful moment that we all remembered as soon as we saw the beach! The ocean in Australia will forever be associated  with that moment we shared on our first morning in the country! The place is very beautiful, with a totally different vibe at night! 

We met and talked with the other bands on the bill tonight, and then it was sound check! A few hours later, the band hit the stage! And it has been an incredible show! I am at a loss for words to describe all that happened tonight! The vibe, the intensity, the effervescence, the genuineness… It was a wonderful mess!

And what happened off stage was also beyond words! There was a true communion between bands, like we have never seen before. Truly typical of Gold Coast, where there is no music scene, bands get together and support one another. It was truly refreshing to see this. And so far, this is what we’ve seen of Australia! This friendliness and familiarity is what we’ve been met with since we arrived here.

And to end this night on a perfect note, the last song that played was Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’, theme song for the Giants! One word, EPIC!!! A great reminder that when you keep believing in your dreams through storms and darkness, no matter what they are, they will come true…